Evidence requirements

If you make a new claim for benefit, we'll need to see evidence of identity, income, capital and rent for you, your partner and any other adult living with you.

If any of these change, you'll need to send us further evidence to show the change as soon as it happens.

This list shows the items we'll need to verify and the type of documents we'll accept as proof. We need to see original documents, not copies.

National Insurance number - send us a National Insurance card, payslip, P45, P60, benefit payment book or letter from Jobcentre Plus, pension service, HM Revenues and Customs

earnings - send us the latest five weekly, three fortnightly or latest two monthly or four-weekly payslips. If you don't have them, please complete our request a certificate of earnings form. A certificate will be emailed to you that you should pass to the relevant employer for completion

earnings from self-employment - send us certified accounts for your last trading year. If you've been trading for less than a year, or you won’t be getting certified accounts prepared, please complete our self-employed earnings form

benefits, pensions, credits and allowances - send us a current award notice from the department of work and pensions or pension service, bank statements showing payments made to your account or a benefit payment book. You don't need to send us evidence of income support, pension credit (guarantee), job seeker's allowance (income based) or employment support allowance (income related). We can already verify these

capital, savings and investments - send us bank or building society statements or passbooks covering the last two months; certificates for stocks, shares, bonds, ISAs, unit trusts and national savings certificates; letter from an investment company or other correspondence on letter-headed paper that confirms the amount held

other money coming in - send us a current award notice, letter from the income source, payment slips or current bank statements showing the payments made

payments you make to a personal pension scheme - send us a pension policy or statement; letter from your pension company or recent bank statement or payslip showing the deductions

child-minding fees - send us five weekly or two monthly payment receipts; child-minding contract or a letter from your provider. If you don't have these then please complete our childcare costs certificate request form. After you have completed the form, a certificate will be emailed to you that you should pass to your childcare provider to confirm your childcare costs

rent - send us a current tenancy agreement, rent letter or fair rent registration document. If you don't have these, please complete our tenancy confirmation certificate request form. A certificate will be emailed to you that you should pass to your landlord for completion and return to us within one month of us initially requesting proof of your rent